Arugam Bay (Tamil: அறுகம் குடா), known locally as “Arugam Kudah”, is a bay situated on the Indian Ocean in the dry zone of Sri Lanka’s southeast coast, and a historic settlement of the ancient Batticaloa Territory (Mattakallappu Desam). The bay is located 117 kilometres (73 mi) south of Batticaloa, 320 kilometres (200 mi) due east of Colombo, and approximately 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south of the market town of Pottuvil. The main settlement in the area, known locally as Ullae, is predominantly Muslim,[1] however there is a significant Sri Lankan Tamil and Sinhala population to the south of the village, as well as a number of international migrants, largely from Europe and Australia. While traditionally fishing has dominated the local economy, tourism has grown rapidly in the area in recent years. Arugam Kudah’s literal Tamil translation is “Bay of Cynodon dactylon”. Tourism in Arugam Bay is dominated by surf tourism, thanks to several quality breaks in the area, however tourists are also attracted by the local beaches, lagoons, historic temples and the nearby Kumana National Park.

My First hike to Uthuwan Kanda done in 2003 when I’m in grade 10. I still remember that we went there as Alter service association of our church. We went to a Church at Mawanella and in the evening our Rev. Fr. took us to show the Uthuwan Kanda. We were guided by a villager and we sent to the top of the mountain but our Fr. didn’t give the permission to climb up the giant rocks. This is a beautiful mountain in this area and a best place to check the surrounding and it was clear that Saradiel used this mountain for that purpose. This is the beginning of the valley of central province mountains.

After a decade I was able to visit this smallest beauty again with my Sobasiri friends and were able to climb up the mountain. Those days there were no many people around hence we feel the freedom. Later we went to a small waterfall called “Bo Ella” and had a wash on our return journey from Kandy after another adventure.

Year and Month  September-2019 Number of Days  One Crew  02 Accommodation  N/A Transport  Motor Bicycles Activities  Hiking, Nature Exploring, Photography, Sightseeing Weather  Good Route  Colombo -> Ratnapura -> Haputale -> Kumbalwela -> Ella -> Passara Road-> Namunukula -> Club Junction -> Wewekele -> Bambaragala Pathana/ Bibile Kanda Tips, Notes and Special remark Carry enough water […]

ගැරඬිගල ඉසව්ව අවට ඇති සමස්ත දිය ඇලි ගණන 10 ක්, ඇලි සියල්ලෙම උස එකට ගත් විට බඹරකන්දට වඩා උසයි. ඇලි දාමයේ ජල මූලාශ්‍රය ඇත්තේත් එම කන්දෙමයි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පුංචි රටක් වුවද එහි ඔබ අප පවා නොදුටු නොදන්නා සුන්දර ඉසව් බොහොමයක් සැඟව පවතියි. නිතර දෙවේලේ එවැනි සුන්දර ඉසව් සොයා යන අපට හමු වූ අපූරුතම කන්දක් සහ ඇලි කිහිපයක් තිබෙන එක් ස්ථානයක් හමුවුණේ නකල්ස් වනපෙතේ දකුණු කෙළවරදීය. එය කන්දක් වුවද දිය ඇලි දාමයක් ඉන් ඉහළ සිට පහළට කඩා වට්ටවන අපූරු තෝතැන්නක් විය. නමින් ගැරඬිගල වන ඉන් වැටෙන දිය ඇලි ගණන හතකි. ඒවා ගැරඬි ඇලි ලෙස හඳුන්වන අතර සමස්තයක් ලෙස මෙම ඇලි යම් ලාලිත්‍යයකට, රටාවකට අනුව ඉහළ සිට වමට බරව කඩා වැටෙනු ලබයි.   

Gombaniya is the highest mountain in Knuckles forest reserve and about 1906m. It was situated near the Alakolla Estate at Hulu Ganga. Yakungehela mountain is the most nearest mountain to Gombaniya and fromthe eastern  the edge connecting to Sudugala and towards Lahumanagala. From the northern side its goes up to Knuckles Kirigalpotta. And Gombaniya is the mountain which can easily seen to the other mountains. Specially we can see this full range at Duwili Fall. Further we have seen this at the top of Knuckles 5 peaks but it couldn’t seen at the top of Alugal Kanda and Dumbanagala since those summits got hide from the 5 peaks. However this full mountain range is visible to the road from Panwila to Kabaragala via Madulkele and Kellebokka.

Okanda is a small hamlet on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka at the official entrance to the Kumana National Park. Just before the ticketing office of Kumana a small lane toward the sea will take you the Okanda Devalaya on a rocky outcrop on the beach.

Kudumbigala monastic complex was built in 246 BC, during the time of King Devanampiyatissa. It was first established as a refuge for the Buddhist monks who wanted to get away from the busy Cities. Archaeologists had recovered over 200 rock caves belonging to this forgotten monastery.

When I wanted to do a small hike on a half day of a Holiday Nirosh suggest me a hike around in his area. It was a small mountain situated in Remuna near Anguruwathota. I left from Moratuwa and met Nirosh at Bandaragama and we proceed along the Panadura – Anguruwathota road and quickly reached to Remuna village. It is called Kumariyan Penna Gala (කුමරියන් පැන්න ගල) and there was a story behind that name. 

However when I checked it in Metric Maps, it marked as “Ramuna Kanda” (රෙමුණ කන්ද) and height about 149.05m. We came to the trail head where the name board established and then after passing the Anda Dola (ආඳා දොළ) we have to go along the rocky staircase and it was not difficult as the footpath is fully clear. It took few minutes and we came to the top of the mountain. As long as in my memory this is the shortest mountain that I have climbed and the view also good. Even then height is very small we had a good view of the entire area.

Bopaththalawa peak is a mountain risen from the greenish plain called Bopaththalawa. This was our one day journey to Bopaththalawa peak.

It was very easy to find Pahanthudawa fall as it is the main attraction of this road. So far many hotels and guest houses in this area was based on this fall. This is a very small waterfall and beautiful and too dangerous. Many of people were died over there due to flash floods and falling to the deep pool. Reaching to the closer of the fall is much difficult since we need to walk along the rocks and it might be slippery. Hence please avoid of visiting this fall during rainy season and soon after the raining.

We had a trip around Walapane and Nuwaraeliya area and suddenly Madusanka said that there is a place called Golumale and it was situated near Walapane area. Then we thought to visit this place and we thought this will be a just a place for a bath. At that time it was nearly around 2pm and we are also at the same area. Hence we headed to Golumle asking the directions from the locals. Villagers are very friendly and they clearly told us the path to Golumale. We had another plan to visit Harasbedda Mini World’s End on the way back to Nuwaraeliya.

Kiribathgala is a long awaited hike in our life as we have seen this giant mountain many number of times at the time of passing Pelmadulla.  We went to pathakada side and the village called Bogoda-Aramba. We started our hike along the Lihiniyak Kelina dola and walked from the left side forest.

It was a nice journey as we walked along a stream but it was dried at that time hence it was very easy for us to climb upward. There were no much leeches and we had enough sources to dink some water. We hiked about 3-4 hours through the forest and reached to the top of mountain which looks like a flat area. Then we walked further along that flat area and was able to reach a higher point.

This was a unplanned journey which is done with Nirosh and few of his friends. On this day I was travelling to Kandy for a personal work by bicycle and Nirosh and his friends were roaming around Kithugala, Yatiyantota in the morning. Then I told him to join with me at Dolosbage road which can come from Nawalapitiya as they have passed Olu fall also. Then we met in the evening and headed to Dolosbage and planned to cover road side waterfalls as they didn’t visited them before. We didn;t think about the beautiful falls located bit away from the main road such as Suramba Fall, Diyathiri Fall etc.